When a Ghost hates a Ghost
by NetRaptor
Summary: Demoralized for being laughed at for saying he met the Traveler, Jayesh goes on his first mission, but his ghost despises his teammate's ghost, Neko. Captured by the Vex, Jayesh must find the courage to wield the Light ... before and his teammate are assimilated.
1. Chapter 1

"Remember, we're only checking on a distress signal," Jayesh told his ghost as he climbed out of his ship. "Stay phased, all right?"

"I know how this works, sheesh," his ghost replied from where he was phased inside Jayesh's armor. "I don't want to be caught by the Vex any more than you do."

Nessus was a strange little world. It was a planetoid called a centaur, neither asteroid nor comet not planet, but a little of each. The Vex, a race of alien time-traveling robots, had terraformed it into a habitable world with a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, liquid water, and forests of strange plants with red leaves. Calculations also showed that the Vex had stabilized its orbit, keeping the amount of sunlight it received stable.

The Vex were up to something, as usual. An AI called Failsafe had called for help. As Nessus had been very quiet since the Traveler's awakening at the end of the Red War, the Vanguard had dispatched a light team of two warlocks to check it out. Warlocks were fast and quiet, and two of them could handle most moderate threats. It was Jayesh's first real mission, and he was jittery with nerves.

As Jayesh stood there, gazing around the strange landscape, his partner's ship descended from the sky, landing gear extended. It set down near his ship on a little plateau above the red forest. Jayesh hadn't met her yet - he'd been on orbital patrol when he received his assignment. He and the other warlock had spoken over the radio, but that was all.

The other warlock phased out of her ship with a flourish. Jayesh flinched, glad his helmet hid his face. Every inch of her gear was more expensive than his: better robe, better gauntlets, better boots. Her belt alone cost upwards of ten thousand glimmer. Jayesh wanted one, himself, and had been saving up.

"What's wrong?" Ghost said in his head. Although ghosts resembled a little flying robot with four star-like segments, they shared a symbiotic bond with their Guardian, letting them know when their Guardian was hurt or upset. Sometimes it got awkward, like now.

"Nothing," Jayesh muttered. He strode forward and shook hands with the other warlock. "Hey there! I'm Jayesh."

"Kari," said the woman. She hesitated and peered at him. "Jayesh? Are you the one who got locked into the Traveler during the Red War?"

"That's me," Jayesh said, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. The experience remained so raw, so personal, that Jayesh didn't talk about it much. After all, he and the Traveler had argued together about Ghaul and mourned the death of the Speaker. It wasn't easy to talk about such things - especially when people accused him of making it up. Sometimes, he wondered if they were right and it had been some sort of fantastic dream.

But Kari didn't ask. She gazed at him through her face plate. He dimly saw the outline of her cheek and left eye, studying him with a quizzical expression. Then she shook her head, as if brushing away her own questions. Instead, she held out a hand and displayed her ghost.

Even her ghost wore an expensive custom shell. Jayesh swallowed.

"This is Neko," Kari said. "He's practically team lead on this mission."

"Don't flatter me," Neko said, rolling his single eye. "Just because I downloaded all the Tower's files on Nessus doesn't mean I know it very well."

Jayesh summoned his own ghost, who looked very plain in his basic shell. "Here's my ghost. I just call him Ghost, though."

"You'll name him eventually," Kari said with a flash of humor. "Most Guardians do."

Ghost and Neko stared at each other balefully.

"Don't expect _my_ Guardian to follow _your_ orders," Ghost said. "He's not yours."

"Then you'd better make sure he follows Kari's," Neko snapped.

Jayesh and Kari stared at their ghosts. Ghosts didn't fight ... usually.

"We'd better get going," Kari said hurriedly. Neko phased from sight in a swirl of blue light, and so did Ghost.

The two Guardians stepped to the edge of the plateau and gazed across Nessus. Mountains with square sides towered around them, as if they had landed in a child's set of tumbled blocks. When robots terraformed a planet, they tended to keep the geometry basic.

"According to our mission," Kari said, "the Tower received a call for help from a golden age AI called Failsafe. She's in a crashed ship somewhere near here. Uh, Neko's giving me a waypoint in that direction." She pointed southeast, across the forest.

"Same here." Jayesh squinted. "I think I can see some kind of scrap metal over there."

"Great!" Kari leaped off the cliff, using her warlock powers to glide gently downward into the trees below. Jayesh followed.

"Don't trust her," Ghost whispered in his mind.

"Why?" Jayesh thought. "Because you don't like her ghost?"

"She's a storm caller, didn't you notice?" Ghost sounded positively snarly. "If her powers go off, she'll fry you like a chicken wing."

"Come on, Ghost," Jayesh thought. He meant to argue further, but he missed the rock he was trying to land on, slipped, and tumbled down the hillside instead.

Nearby, Kari laughed. "Are you all right?"

"Fine!" Face burning in embarrassment, Jayesh leaped to his feet, holding back a groan at the bruises he'd just accumulated. Ghost healed him without comment.

Nearby, among the massively huge tree trunks, Kari had summoned her sparrow. This was a hovering vehicle like a motorcycle. Hers was tricked out in expensive mods and a custom paint job in orange and blue.

Jayesh gazed at it hopelessly. He expected to save up enough for a used sparrow in about ten years.

Ghost picked up his envy. "If we just keep working, Jay, we'll earn enough glimmer in no time."

"Come on!" Kari called, and shot away through the trees.

Jayesh followed on foot. "Maybe, if we happen across some Fallen, I can borrow one of their pikes. They handle like a sparrow, right?"

"More or less," Ghost replied. "I'm not detecting any Fallen in this area, though. Or Vex. Or our partner. She's already outside my scan range."

Jayesh picked his way along the forest floor. The huge trees had been forced to grow straight up through bare, cracked rock. Their decomposing leaves covered the rough ground in a thin layer of loam, making footing treacherous.

The second time Jayesh stepped in a crack and twisted his ankle, he started traveling in long, horizontal warlock glides. He didn't think about sparrows. Or how much they cost. Or how fast they were. He certainly didn't feel despair about his own meager finances.

"She's back," Ghost announced.

Kari's sparrow flashed toward them, then braked and spun broadside to them, its orange and blue stripes flashing in the sunlight. "Aren't you coming?"

"I don't have a sparrow," Jayesh admitted.

Kari didn't bat an eye. "Hop on behind me. No point in walking all the way. It's like three kilometers."

Humiliated, but grateful, Jayesh mounted the saddle seat behind Kari and wrapped his arms around her waist. For a second it was awkward, being so close to another Guardian. Then she hit the accelerator. Jayesh's arms almost dislocated as the thrust nearly threw him off backwards.

"You know how I say that you fly too fast?" Ghost remarked in his head. "I take it back."

The red trees blurred around them as the sparrow wove between them. Jayesh's heart thrilled. Now, this was fun. He had to get one of these and learn to fly like this. Kari handled her sparrow so expertly that they seemed to flow around obstacles, like the sparrow's namesake.

It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before they flew through a narrow canyon and emerged in a rocky valley. Kari braked, and she and Jayesh dismounted. Her ghost Neko appeared briefly to transmat the sparrow, phasing it away in blue sparkles.

"Thanks for the lift," Jayesh said breathlessly.

Kari shrugged. "No problem. Not every Guardian has a sparrow." She turned and scanned the valley. "Now that's just sad."

Jayesh followed her gaze. It wasn't a valley. They stood inside the bones of a crashed ship. The remaining support girders towered into the sky like pillars. Most of it had been picked clean by scavengers. The Vex had terraformed straight through it, building cliffs and rocks through the ship's sides in some places. A little stream now ran through the middle of what had been the ship's hold. At the far end of the valley was a chunk of ship that was still intact - the tail section, complete with a defunct booster rocket and a smaller transport ship still perched on top, now gutted and useless.

"This is where that AI is?" Jayesh said in disbelief.

"Apparently she's quite the survivor," Kari replied, striding toward it. "One of our Guardians won her trust, so she's been working with the Vanguard."

Jayesh followed her in silence, apprehensive. Ghost emerged from phase and scanned the area, which was very quiet.

"I don't like this," Ghost muttered. "The Vex and Fallen wouldn't leave a place like this alone."

Kari's ghost, Neko, popped out of phase. "They've certainly been here before, and apparently Failsafe reported some kind of threat made against her. Just because we don't see our enemies doesn't mean they're not there."

Jayesh felt a flicker of rage from Ghost. Before Jayesh could stop him, Ghost flew right up to Neko. "Are you saying my scans aren't functional?"

"I don't know, are they?" Neko snapped.

Jayesh grabbed Ghost just as Kari grabbed Neko. "I'm sorry!" Jayesh exclaimed. "He doesn't usually act this way."

Kari held Neko in both hands, gazing into his eye. "Neko, be polite to teammates! I don't care what his ghost said!"

Neko's response was an incoherent grumble.

Jayesh looked at Ghost. The little robot's top and bottom segments were drawn together in a very obvious frown. "Come on, Ghost. You're embarrassing me."

Ghost said nothing, only continued to frown.

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice spoke on their radio frequency. It was a cheerful, bubbly, female voice. "So wonderful to see the Guardians I requested from the Vanguard!"

This was followed by the same voice speaking in a flat, passive-aggressive tone. "Maybe they should invent a Crucible for ghosts."

In Jayesh's hand, Ghost's frown vanished, and he phased without a word. Neko did the same.

"Failsafe?" Kari ventured.

"Hello, Female Guardian," the cheerful Failsafe replied. "Welcome to Nessus!" Her voice changed to its aggressive tone. "Where all my crew died."

Jayesh struggled not to laugh. "Split personality?" he whispered to Kari.

She held up both hands and shrugged.

Failsafe heard this. "I assure you, I am in perfect working order, male Guardian."

"We know you are," Kari said. "We're on our way."

Jayesh kept quiet until they found a way into the remaining husk of the ship. They passed down a short, winding hallway to a musty room filled with machinery. One entire wall was nothing but data cubes. In the middle of this wall was a black box with a glowing orange light. The light brightened as Failsafe spoke. "Welcome to the Exodus Black." Her voice changed. "Or what's left of it." Returning to her cheerful side, she continued, "I've intercepted Vex transmissions stating that I must be assimilated and my data accessed. That is against all protocols. They have sent a Protean Mind to break into my systems, but I am holding it off. However, I need you Guardians to destroy the Protean Mind before it finds a way through my firewall."

Jayesh didn't ask what a Protean Mind was. He had a feeling he was about to find out.

Before Neko could say anything, Ghost said, "Where is this Mind? The valley was empty."

"Transmitting coordinates," Failsafe replied cheerfully.

Ghost and Neko both received the transmission. Jayesh looked for the waypoint on his screen. It appeared on the floor, under his feet.

"It's right beneath us?" he asked.

Failsafe's apathetic side replied, "They're drilling up from below. At present, they are fifty meters from penetrating my core. I'll probably die." She swapped back to bubbly. "But that's why I asked for Guardians! I know you can handle this threat."

Neko said, "I see a way down. There's a cave entrance a short distance from our position."

"Right," Kari said. "Jay, how's your ammo situation?"

He lifted his auto rifle from its shoulder holster and checked the magazine. "Full."

Kari produced a long-barreled, sleek rifle with purple light running from the butt all the way to the tip of the barrel.

Jayesh stared. "What is that?"

"Graviton lance," Kari replied. "It shoots black holes." She headed out the tunnel.

Jayesh followed in her wake, stammering, "Black holes? It really shoots black holes? You're just kidding, right?"

"It really does," Neko said acidly. "In a few years, you might get one."

"Neko!" Kari exclaimed. "Yes, Jayesh, it actually splits matter and antimatter, producing a black hole for a few nanoseconds."

Jayesh didn't ask what it cost. He didn't want to know.


	2. Chapter 2: Bad resurrection

The Guardians found the cave entrance nearby and flicked on their headlamps as they plunged into the darkness. The cave had many side passages branching off the main ones. Between their ghosts' radar and Failsafe's coordinates, they soon found themselves descending a fresh, roughly-cut tunnel toward a red glow that reflected off the walls.

They crept to a bend in the tunnel and peered around it. It opened into a cave paved with broken stone. A squad of Vex goblins stood at intervals around the cave, and a huge tunnel in the ceiling led straight upward. Rock clattered into a pile beneath it. A strange throbbing hum emanated from the hole, as if some drilling machine was hard at work.

"I'll take the left," Kari whispered. Without waiting for a response, she leaped into the air in a warlock glide, firing at the robots in midair.

Jayesh ran to a particularly large boulder, ducked behind it, and picked off robots from cover. Each Vex robot - the goblins were the foot soldiers - had a white compartment in its belly where Vex milk was stored. It acted as the machine's lifeblood, and shooting it there killed the robot instantly.

The goblins fired back at them, but Kari and Jayesh were too efficient. In a few seconds they had cleared the room.

The Guardians met beside the pile of rock falling from the hole in the ceiling. Kari bit her lip. "How can we even look up there without a ton of rock landing on our heads?"

Jayesh pulled out his sidearm, a hand cannon with a barrel like a pipe. "I could try to ricochet a couple of bullets up there. Might distract the drilling robot."

Kari backed away to a safe distance. "You try and I'll watch."

Jayesh raised the pistol and sighted along it.

In his head, Ghost said, "Angle it higher."

Over the radio, Kari's ghost snapped, "And aim along the wall, not straight at it."

"Back off," Ghost snarled. "I'll instruct my Guardian and you instruct yours."

"Guys!" Jayesh exclaimed. "Shut up so I can concentrate!"

The ghosts fell silent. Kari murmured something he couldn't hear, speaking away from her mic. She was scolding Neko again.

Jayesh squeezed the trigger. The pistol bucked in his hand. The bullet pinged around inside the tunnel in the roof. He aimed higher and fired again.

The falling rock stopped, as did the throbbing hum of the drilling robot. The red light shifted, growing brighter. Suddenly, to everyone's horror, a hydra descended out of the tunnel, filling it from edge to edge.

A Vex hydra was a massive metal centipede equipped with plasma launchers and energy rockets. To make matters worse, it had an impenetrable energy shield around it with tiny gaps for shooting through. The only way to destroy it was to shoot back at it through the gap ... usually while soaking up plasma bolts to the face.

This was a job for a couple of Titans in heavy armor. Two warlocks, even in tough fiber weave cloaks, would have a much harder fight.

Jayesh ran for cover as the hydra planted a rocket where he had been standing. Across the room, Kari soared into the air and landed a hit with her black hole gun. A slash appeared in the hydra's metal. Infuriated, it turned its weapons on her.

"That's the Protean Mind!" Ghost exclaimed. "I didn't know they had terraforming capabilities. It's actually been terraforming its way up to Failsafe."

Failsafe, who had been eavesdropping on their transmissions, said cheerfully, "That seems like cheating, doesn't it?"

Kari yelled in pain. Jayesh whipped out of hiding and aimed at the hydra ... only to find its full energy shield in his way, no gaps in sight. It peppered his position with blue-white plasma bolts, forcing him back behind the rock.

"Are you all right?" he panted into his radio.

"Fine, now," Kari replied breathlessly. "Got caught in a rocket concussion that burned. Distract it! It's got me cornered!"

Jayesh peeked out of hiding. The hydra was pelting Kari's corner of the room with rocket after rocket. The floor shook. Dust and smoke filled the air.

Jayesh pulled on his connection with the Light to build a fiery energy grenade. Holding his breath, he tossed it under the floating hydra, where it rolled under the robot's belly.

The explosion rocked the Protean Mind backward, up-ending the shield. Kari leaped out of cover and blasted it with her graviton lance. Jayesh meant to help finish it off, too. He stepped out and aimed at the robot's glowing red eye.

The eye fixed on him in pure malice. As he squeezed the trigger, the hydra launched its remaining eight rockets at him in a blazing rain of death.

Jayesh dove for cover, but it didn't matter much. His entire side of the room erupted in fire. Then, with an awful crash, the ceiling caved in.

Jayesh's last action was to summon Ghost and throw him through the doorway, into the entrance tunnel. Then the falling stone crushed the life out of him.

* * *

Resurrection light sizzled through Jayesh's body. He awoke, most of his body still buried in rubble, in the worst pain of his life. Ghost hovered a foot away, looking anxious. Jayesh managed a single, rasping breath before his heart stopped beating in his crushed chest.

* * *

Another resurrection, more Light. Jayesh opened his eyes. The pain was much less this time. Yet the horror of his previous death remained locked in his brain, so he let out the scream he had been unable to utter.

"Calm down, I've almost got you out," Kari's voice said nearby. Her expensive gear was dirty, and she was pulling rocks off him like they were made of foam. His legs were still pinned. The crushing weight of the rock on his fractured bones made his head spin.

"I told you not to resurrect him, yet," Neko said nearby.

"I can't wait long or his spark will extinguish," Ghost exclaimed. "Jayesh! Can you hear me?"

"Ghost," Jayesh moaned, "my legs, they're completely crushed. Heal me! Please!"

Ghost anxiously hovered over him, but his healing beam couldn't reach under the stone. Kari kept working, hauling rock with frantic strength.

Jayesh laid his head on his arms and fainted.

* * *

He came to lying on his back. Pain was fading from his legs. Kari knelt over him, and both ghosts floated nearby. Ghost was sweeping him with a healing beam.

"Jayesh," Kari was saying, "wake up. We have to move - the Vex are coming. Jayesh!"

He groaned and slowly sat up. His body felt perfect - yet the echo of his violent multiple deaths still lingered in his limbs. "I've never been resurrected before," he mumbled. "Is it always that bad?"

"Not usually," Kari said, grabbing his arm and dragging him to his feet. "Come on, hurry!"

Jayesh struggled to his feet. As Kari released Jayesh, Ghost flew right up to his face, studying him anxiously through the faceplate of his helmet.

"I'm sorry," Ghost whispered.

Jayesh closed both hands around Ghost and leaned his helmet against the little robot with a clink. "It's all right. I'm better now." It was a lie, but he didn't want poor Ghost beating himself up over a stupid accident.

"They're in the outer tunnel," Neko said from nearby, interrupting the moment. "We'll have to fight our way out."

"I was going to say that," Ghost replied with a little too much ferocity, betraying how upset he was.

Both ghosts phased from sight. Kari darted to the tunnel mouth and threw a grenade into the darkness. It detonated with a boom. Multiple robot voices shrieked as they died.

Jayesh gazed at the collapsed cave. The hole drilled up to Failsafe was completely blocked off. The hydra was buried under rocks that were piled to the ceiling. There was a hole - a grave-shaped hole - in the rubble where his body had been. Kari must have spent a long time digging. The room had narrowed to a single long corridor, the rest of it completely filled in.

The Vex had them trapped.

There had to be a way out of this, but he couldn't think of one. His brain was sluggish, his thoughts wading through stress and trauma. He really wanted to sit in a corner and rest for a while, recover from the awfulness of being buried alive and dying from it twice.

Fortunately, Kari's brain worked faster than his. She ran back to him, slinging her rifle across her back. "Cover me. I'm going to use my super charge."

"Storm caller," Ghost whispered in his mind. "Keep your distance."

Jayesh fumbled for his weapons. His sidearm was gone, buried somewhere. His rifle was badly crushed, the barrel caved in. He hadn't brought a heavy weapon because he didn't own one. With a rueful laugh, he held up the rifle. "I guess I can beat the Vex to death with this."

Kari stared at the damaged rifle, nonplussed. Then she pulled out her graviton lance and handed it to him. "Use this."

The weapon slid into his arms, heavy, sleek, and deadly. Jayesh ran his fingers along the barrel, following the beads of purple light that flowed along it. "Wow. Thanks."

"I'll want it back later," Kari said. "Don't get attached." She retreated a few steps, tilted her head back, and began to draw deep breaths, summoning the fantastic power that the Light granted all Guardians.

Jayesh had a super power, too, but his was fire-based, and he didn't have the focus for it right now. Instead, he knelt behind a boulder and aimed at the tunnel mouth.

Eight Vex goblins and a big, nasty one called a Minotaur appeared. Jayesh only had to use one shot each - the graviton lance had sick amounts of power. He felled the goblins, then concentrated on breaking through the shield that surrounded the Minotaur. It fired vast bolts of plasma at him, splashing on the rocks around him until they glowed red-hot. From the noise echoing down the tunnel, more Vex were on the way, too.

Kari yelled and charged the Minotaur. As she ran, lightning flickered over her body, lifted off the ground by her own power. She extended both hands and fried the Minotaur to a black crisp in a split second. Then she flew up the tunnel, lighting it in flickering blue as she went.

Jayesh followed at a safe distance, carrying that lovely, lovely rifle.

Kari punched through their enemies in an unstoppable wave of lightning. The Vex, being metal, had no defense and fell like mowed grass. She cleared the tunnel all the way back to the entrance. There her power gave out. She leaned against the wall, panting, smoke curling from her armor and hands.

Jayesh peered cautiously outside, blinking in the sunlight. The ship-turned-valley looked empty, but there was something outside the cave entrance. Tiny flickers of white light swirled in geometric patterns, barely visible in the strong light.

"Kari," he said, "was this here before?"

She stepped up beside him and squinted. "I don't see anything."

"It's a Vex construct." Jayesh summoned Ghost. "Can you tell what this is?"

Ghost scanned the spot. "There's definitely a Vex matrix configuration here, but it's not fully materialized. I can't identify it."

Neko appeared and flew alongside Ghost. "Let me see." He scanned the object, too. "I know what it is," he said, giving Ghost a superior look.

"Sure you do," Ghost replied. "You're guessing."

"No, I know exactly what it is! It's a leftover terraforming construct."

Ghost narrowed his facets in a frown. "Right outside the cave mouth?"

"Sure. They didn't want us escaping."

"Neko," Kari said wearily, "don't fight."

"I'm not fighting, I'm arguing!" Neko replied. "Look, if I just-"

More white light crawled through the air in a grid pattern. It engulfed both distracted ghosts. They vanished.

Kari and Jayesh screamed at the same time, leaping forward to snatch at the spots where their ghosts had been. The construct engulfed them, too.


	3. Chapter 3: Similar yet different

The blinding light of a Vex gate surrounded them, yanking them through space and possibly time. Jayesh gritted his teeth against the forces dragging at his body, the experience coming too soon after being crushed to death. Panic welled up inside him. He couldn't die that way, not again-

Darkness. Jayesh stumbled forward, hit a wall, and reeled backward into another wall.

Kari caught his arm. "Oh no," she said, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "We fell for the oldest trick in the book."

Jayesh's eyes adjusted to the dark. It wasn't completely black. He and Kari were trapped in a box made of the glowing white data lattice the Vex used for everything. A few feet away was a smaller box with Ghost and Neko inside, flying back and forth frantically.

Both prisons floated in the air a few feet from a smooth stone floor. They were in a vast cavern with a circular device in the center, like the emitter for a huge laser. More white computer language floated around its perimeter. Every sort of Vex robot moved around the room, working on the construct ring, cleaning weapons, repairing each other.

Two Minotaurs walked up and stared at their prisoners. The ghosts and Guardians stared back. After a moment, the Minotaurs walked back to the ring in the room's center and touched the glowing symbols. They began to spin.

"Great," Kari muttered. "They've just told their bosses that we're here."

They waited, tense, watching that huge circle, expecting something awful to appear. But nothing happened. The symbols stopped spinning. The Minotaurs moved off. The Vex went about their business, ignoring their prisoners.

"I'll bet they're figuring out what to do with us," Jayesh said. "Aren't the Vex always running calculations and things?"

"Yes." Kari slid down the glassy-smooth construct wall to sit on the floor. Jayesh did the same, sitting across from her. The prison was eight feet square, so there wasn't room to pace, anyway.

"Can we get out of this?" he asked, touching the wall. It glowed under his fingertips.

"Our ghosts could do it," Kari said wearily. "But they're too busy fighting."

Jayesh looked. Ghost and Neko were swirling around each other like a pair of angry bees, obviously having one heck of an argument.

"Fight it out, you two," he muttered. "Then figure out how to save us."

* * *

"How dare you blame me for this!" Neko shrieked. "I knew that construct was a gate!"

"No you didn't!" Ghost yelled. "You said it was a terraform construct!"

The two ghosts circled each other like sparring opponents. Their mutual pent-up dislike was finally being vented.

"I was seeing if you knew!" Neko retorted. "Which you didn't, because you're the most ignorant ghost I've ever met!"

"You're the most unpleasant, stuck-up ghost ever!" Ghost shouted back. "What gives you the right to be the team leader? You know as much about the Vex as I do, which is _nothing_!"

"My Guardian is senior to yours!" Neko yelled. "She's been fighting the Darkness for a hundred years! Your Guardian has barely finished his training!"

Ghost recoiled, fresh fury welling through him. Nobody dissed his Guardian. "I searched for him for centuries, you ungrateful drone! He spent five days with the Traveler, which puts him head and shoulders above all other Guardians!"

Neko's eye narrowed. "I notice your Guardian won't talk about it. I think you're both lying."

"I'll prove it," Ghost said. "Ask me anything you want to know about the Traveler."

"What's it look like?" Neko said immediately.

"A Guardian in a robe," Ghost said.

"Wrong!" Neko said with a derisive laugh. "It appears as a ghost with a lot of fancy Light around it."

"How would you know?" Ghost snarled, deeply offended. "You're just a stupid combat ghost! All you know is how to hack alien computers and heal your Guardian in a fight!"

For some reason, this maddened Neko to the point of insanity. His blue eye turned red. "I've been inside the Traveler, too! And I'm an excellent healer! I never let Kari be hurt! Not ever!"

"You're just a posing, tricked-out tablet!" Ghost yelled, his own eye turning red. "Nobody has been inside the Traveler except us!"

Both ghosts attacked each other at the same time. Ghosts had a variety of powers at their disposal. Guardians generally only ever saw them use their scanning beam to examine objects, interact with computers, and heal or resurrect their Guardian. But those powers of matter manipulation could be put to combat use in dreadful ways.

Each ghost tried to dematerialize the other. But their beams met and canceled each other out, causing an explosion that knocked both ghosts into the opposite walls of their prison. Both of them fell to the floor and lay still, their eyes gone dark.

* * *

Jayesh and Kari leaped to their feet with distressed cries.

"They killed each other!" Kari cried. She beat on the wall of the prison, each blow only making the wall light up. "Neko! No!" She leaned against the wall and burst into tears.

Jayesh felt close to tears, himself. He stood rigid, watching Ghost's motionless form, waiting and waiting for him to move. Deep inside, though, he still felt his bond with Ghost. If he was dead, wouldn't that be gone?

That was why when Kari punched him, he never saw it coming.

She hit him with a handful of lightning that jolted through his body, locking his muscles, and at the same time, firing every nerve in his body with excruciating pain. He hit the wall and spun around, dazed, holding the side of his helmet. Inside it, his face was numb.

Kari stood there, fists clenched, more lightning crackling around them. "Your stupid ghost killed Neko!"

Jayesh stood there, watching her shoulders heave with half-suppressed sobs. Vividly, he recalled the Traveler - its Guardian-like avatar - with the black mark crawling up the side of his face, mirroring the Red Legion's cage.

" _The young clamor for justice_ ," the Traveler had said, " _but the old understand the value of mercy_."

"Are you going to kill me?" Jayesh asked Kari.

She stood there for a long moment, lightning rippling over her fists, obviously thinking about it. Jayesh had time to remember being crushed under tons of rock, and how badly it had hurt. If she killed him, without Ghost to resurrect him, maybe he'd see the Traveler again.

Kari relaxed her fists. The lightning vanished. She slumped against the wall and pressed her hands to her face plate.

Relieved, Jayesh let himself lean against the wall, too. "Thanks. And ... I never thanked you for digging me out of the rockfall."

She nodded.

He returned to watching both ghosts, his heart hurting, feeling more alone than ever. He'd been a Guardian barely a year, but his old life was only the faintest of memories. Ghost had been his steadfast friend, teaching him about this strange new world and his new powers. How would he function without him? Especially if his own teammate hated him? The pain from Kari's blow lingered in his skull and jaw, unhealed.

"Neko already died once," Kari said, head bowed and shoulders slumped. "I was a severed Guardian for two months. But the Traveler sent him back. Neko had to argue for it."

Jayesh nodded, a smile stretching his sore face. "Sounds like something the Traveler would do. He loves debates. He really wants people to reason with him."

Kari lifted her head and gazed at him. He wished he could see her face - with their helmets on, both of them were blank and anonymous. But the atmosphere didn't have enough oxygen to allow for frivolous things like taking helmets off.

After a long moment, Kari said, "You really did enter the Traveler, then?"

Jayesh nodded. "Zavala told me I was a mistake. That I never should have been a Guardian. I needed to know, so I sneaked into the Traveler. I had no idea the Red Legion would attack that same night."

"How did you survive?" Kari asked. "The cage was up for five days and nights. You should have died of thirst."

Jayesh watched their ghosts. Had one of them moved? "Well ... see, being with the Traveler is different. It sustained me with Light, itself. I would get tired, but I never felt hungry or thirsty."

Kari watched their ghosts, too. "I've heard people talk about you. The scholars debated every word you put in your report. They say the Traveler would never behave the way you say."

Jayesh had read the scathing debunking he had received on the city networks. He'd stopped reading anything about himself, the Traveler, or Ghaul. He kept his head down and didn't talk about it. Passing his warlock training had been hard enough without his fellow Guardians questioning his sanity or calling him a liar.

"Yeah," Jayesh said, trying to keep the sadness from creeping into his voice. "I know what they said. Maybe they're right. But that's how the Traveler treated me ... like a friend. I don't know how he thinks or why he invited me to talk with him."

Ghost had definitely moved that time. Neko had stirred, too.

"They're alive," Jayesh pointed out.

"I think you're right," Kari said. She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "How did the Traveler answer? Were you meant to be a Guardian?"

"Yes," Jayesh said, remembering it fondly. "He told me that there had been no mistake. But he recommended that I switch disciplines from Titan to Warlock. So I did, and I passed training with full marks."

Ghost wobbled into the air and looked at Jayesh. Jayesh waved. Ghost turned and gazed at Neko for a long moment. Then he flew to his fallen brother and traced him with a healing beam. Neko awoke and slowly rose into the air, spinning in a circle as he reoriented himself. He tried to fly to Kari and bumped into the prison wall. Kari placed a hand on the wall, and they gazed at each other longingly for a moment.

Kari said quietly, "Well, Jayesh ... let me tell you the truth."

He braced himself, waiting for her to tell him that he had been hallucinating on illegal drugs or something.

"I've met the Traveler, too."

It was the last thing he expected. His jaw dropped. "You have? How?"

She interlaced her gloved fingers and stared at them. "Right before the Red War, I picked up a Hive infection. It started changing me into a thrall."

"That was you?" Jayesh exclaimed. "I read about that on the news! They said your ghost figured out how to heal you."

"That's what I told the reporters and doctors," Kari said in a low voice. "I saw how they crucified you. But I'll tell you what really happened, if you keep it secret."

Jayesh nodded. "I've gotten good at not talking."

Kari hesitated a long moment, staring at her hands. "I was almost fully transformed. I was losing my mind, hearing the Hive talking to me. The doctors were trying to choose between lethal injection and a bullet to the brain as the best method of euthanasia. Neko couldn't bear to watch me die, so he went to the Traveler. He came back with the strangest ghost I've ever seen. I suppose it was the Traveler's avatar. The Traveler had to rewind my body through time to repair it. Neko had to hold my spark in his core. And it killed him." Her voice broke. "He died in my hands." She gazed at her ghost, cut off by two prison walls, and seemed to compose herself. "But it gave him back to me. The Traveler was so ... majestic. Thinking about it, everything you've said makes sense. The Traveler doesn't really think the way we do, so when we tell people about it, it sounds crazy."

"Ikora believed me," Jayesh said in a low voice. "She's been the only one."

They fell silent, watching their ghosts. The two were talking now, no longer fighting, floating motionless and occasionally turning to check on their Guardians.

"I hope Ghost tells Neko this," Jayesh said. "I think that's what's been wrong with him. He's been so angry at the way we've been treated, he's gotten really defensive."

Kari nodded. "Neko had better listen. He's had an ego problem since he was resurrected."


	4. Chapter 4: Gate Lord

The blow the ghosts had given each other had cooled their tempers. Ghost awakened first, groggy and confused. As he climbed into the air, he looked for his Guardian and saw him sitting in the neighboring cage.

They were in separate cages.

For the first time, Ghost processed that. The Vex had separate goals for the ghosts and their Guardians, probably involving Vex milk and physical subsumption. Ghost shuddered at the thought.

He looked for his opponent and spotted Neko lying on the floor, his eye beginning to flicker on.

"Why did we fight?" Ghost wondered. "We've put our Guardians in incredible danger." Apologetically, he healed Neko. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let myself get so angry."

Neko floated off the floor, wobbled drunkenly, and tried to fly to Kari, but hit the prison wall instead. After a moment, he turned to Ghost. "Did you just heal me? And apologize?"

"Yes," Ghost said again. "Look, the Vex are going to assimilate us and our Guardians. We've got to work together and escape."

Neko gazed at him for a long moment. Then he turned and stared at his Guardian.

"I'm failing her again," he said very softly. "I'm sorry, Kari."

Ghost flew around the prison, scanning the walls. "I'm getting data on a containment matrix. All physical motion is redirected to a feedback loop to hold it inside."

Neko scanned the prison, too. "Right. But if we could disrupt the loop, the matrix would destabilize and we could get free."

Both ghosts studied the prison in silence. Neko fired different types of beams at the walls, testing to see how the matrix might react. Then he drooped suddenly, gazing at the floor. "I've almost lost her twice, you know. It was my fault both times."

Ghost faced him. "I almost lost Jayesh today. He was under that rock for so long ... I had to resurrect him while he was still crushed." He closed his eye and mimicked the human motion of shaking one's head. "Then I had to revive him while his legs were still buried. He suffered, Neko. I let my Guardian suffer."

"So did I," Neko said, and told the story of how Kari had nearly become a Hive thrall. Ghost listened in quiet horror. Jayesh had been buried only sixty-seven minutes. Kari had endured torment for three weeks. Ghost had read the news reports, of course, but hearing it from Kari's own ghost made the story much more real.

He also listened in growing astonishment as Neko detailed his daring trip to ask the Traveler for help, and what he saw there. His description of the Light, and the way it felt so warm and welcoming, matched Ghost's experience.

Neko abruptly broke off, gazing broodingly at Kari.

"What happened?" Ghost said. "The Traveler healed her?"

Neko didn't answer for a long moment. "It cost me," he murmured. "But I love her, so it doesn't matter."

There was obviously more to the story than that, but Ghost didn't pry. Instead, he said, "I think I know why our experiences with the Traveler were different."

Neko gave him a questioning look.

"We experienced the Traveler in its dream state," Ghost said. "You met it once it was awakened. It interacted differently because of that."

Neko scanned the wall and didn't speak for a long moment. "So ... your Guardian really did climb into the Traveler."

"I tried to talk him out of it, actually," said Ghost. "But ... if he hadn't, the Red Legion would have butchered him."

"I've read the articles saying he lied," Neko said. "But it was the truth, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Ghost said. "All those ignorant people writing those ... those things about us. They said I'd been feeding Jayesh dreams. They accused him of doing drugs, or just outright making up the story for attention. It's one thing to heal your Guardian in a firefight. But I can't do a thing about the media. Traveler's Light! I've been so angry. I took it out on you when Jayesh was so humiliated to see you two."

"Humiliated? Why?" Neko asked in confusion.

"Jayesh is a very young Guardian," Ghost said. "He hasn't had a chance to earn much glimmer, or even be rewarded gear from the Vanguard. When you and your Guardian stepped off your ship, both of you wearing all that expensive gear, he died a little inside. It made me angrier. My Guardian represented all Guardians before the Traveler, arguing that it defend them. He breathed the Light, itself. He and the Traveler wept together over the Speaker's death. My Guardian is the equal of any other Guardian, you understand? Yet, people call him a liar! And he scrapes for enough glimmer to keep himself fed. I'm angry, Neko. I've been angry for a long time, and it's not your fault."

Neko didn't answer for a while, but he scrunched his facets tightly together and closed his eye. Finally he whispered, "I'm sorry. I've treated you and your Guardian shamefully."

Ghost flew around and around the prison to vent his feelings. "I haven't been any better. Truce, all right? We need to get out of here."

Neko watched him circle, quick as a bird on the wing. Then he flew after Ghost, scanning as he went. "That's it!" he cried. "Our constantly changing position stresses the feedback loop! Hit it with a hacking protocol!"

Both ghosts zinged around the prison, flashing their beams across the walls. The walls began to flicker.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Jayesh said, watching their ghosts fly.

Kari climbed to her feet. "I think they've figured out how to break the cage. Look, it's getting thinner."

A new voice spoke over their radios. A cheerful, bubbly voice. "Proxy window successfully opened. Hello, Male and Female Guardian. I have been attempting to contact you for some time, but the Vex have you imprisoned."

"We noticed," Kari said. "Failsafe, can you get us free?"

"I am attempting to hack the Vex containment matrix," Failsafe said cheerfully. "Projected wait time: thirty-eight days, nine hours, twenty-three minutes."

"We don't have that long," Jayesh said. "Look."

The huge circle construct in the center of the room had lit with creeping geometric symbols that reached into the air. Something was beginning to take shape in the circle's center - a blob of white light the size of a house.

Nearby, the cage containing the ghosts vanished. The ghosts flew to their Guardians' prison and began scanning it. This close, their voices rang faintly through the construct walls.

"The containment field is directed the other way from this side."

"Can we break it?"

"Yes, but not the same way-"

"Greetings, angry ghosts," Failsafe said. "I estimate you have four point three minutes to rescue your Guardians before that Gate Lord enters our reality."

"No pressure," Jayesh added.

"You're not helping, Guardian!" Ghost snapped.

Jayesh turned to Kari and lifted the graviton lance from where it was slung across his back. "Here. You might need this."

Kari took it, then looked at him in consternation. "You're unarmed, aren't you?"

"I have my super charge," he said lightly. Nevermind that weariness still weighed on him, and his face was only now regaining feeling from being electrocuted.

She pulled out her sidearm and handed it to him, grip first. "Here's Drang. It's accurate, but it doesn't hit hard." She added three extra ammo magazines.

Jayesh didn't know what Drang was, but the pistol was a gold color with a narrow barrel. Small caliber, then. Close range. He checked the magazine - full - then holstered it. "Thanks."

"You two work so well together," Failsafe said happily. "You should consider marriage."

"What?" Jayesh and Kari yelped. "No!"

"Why would she think that?" Jayesh exclaimed, his face suddenly burning.

Kari sighed. "Why else? She's a ship."

This didn't make much sense to Jayesh, but then, he didn't want it to. He watched their ghosts circle around the prison, and tried not to watch the monstrous Vex thing appearing in the center of the circle. The other Vex gathered around it in rows, waiting.

Neko hovered near Kari, gazing at her through the prison wall. Kari was checking her rifle's magazine, but stilled, gazing at her ghost. Suddenly she whirled around, jamming the magazine back in place. "Jayesh, this gun fires black holes."

"Yeah, so?" he replied.

Kari aimed it at the ceiling. "Duck."

Jayesh crouched and covered his head. Ghost and Neko flew to opposite corners of the prison construct, waiting.

Kari fired at the ceiling. The rifle's shriek was deafening in the enclosed space. A bright purple bolt slashed straight through the construct wall. Both ghosts caught the resulting tear with their beams and peeled the prison open like the rind from an orange.

Jayesh and Kari leaped to the stone floor. Their ghosts flew to them, triumphant. Jayesh held up one hand. "High five!" Ghost bumped his shell into it.

Kari opened her hands. Neko landed, and she clasped him to her chest, bowing her head over him in a hug. Jayesh had to look away - it was a little too intimate for him.

The only other place to look was the slowly materializing monster in the middle of the room. Its outline was visible now - a hulking humanoid thing with rows of arms around its torso. The tiny handgun at his hip suddenly felt very, very small.

Ghost followed his gaze. "There is an exit passage on the far side of the room, but ninety-eight Vex soldiers stand between. One of them being the Gate Lord."

"Better phase," Jayesh told him. "I don't want them converting you."

Ghost disappeared in a swirl of blue light. "I'm not fond of the idea, either," he said in Jayesh's head.

"So, Failsafe," Jayesh said. "Any ideas?"

"I advise you to, as the Cayde-unit would say, run like hell," Failsafe said cheerfully.

Kari looked up as Neko phased, too. "There's no cover here, so we might as well. Try to get to that pillar over there, if we can't make it all the way."

The two Guardians broke into a sprint, running on the balls of their feet, trying to move quietly. The Vex soldiers were all facing the construct circle and didn't see this. But the Gate Lord, although not fully materialized, rotated in place, its huge glowing eye tracking them.

Kari and Jayesh reached the pillar and ducked behind it. Nothing was attacking them yet, so Jayesh panted, "Next one?"

Kari nodded.

They bolted for the next pillar, a hundred feet closer to the triangle exit door. They were almost there when the Gate Lord's voice filled the room, booming out some command in a tearing, modulated, computer voice.

The entire Vex army turned to face the Guardians, lifting their weapons.

"Time's up," Failsafe said in her flat, apathetic voice. "It was nice knowing you."

Plasma bolts filled the air, heating the room several degrees instantly. Kari and Jayesh leaped and flew in warlock glides, trying to make themselves harder to hit and move faster at the same time. Jayesh saw Kari take three plasma bolts to the hip and right leg, and he took one in the shoulder and thigh. They arrived at the next pillar, gasping in pain.

Their ghosts healed them and mended their suit damage. Jayesh's nerves hummed with the aftermath of his skin searing off. Kari seemed to shake it off faster, but then, she wasn't still recovering from being buried alive. She peeked out from behind their cover and vaporized Vex soldiers with her graviton lance.

Jayesh drew the little handgun Drang. It seemed tiny and pathetic against the sheer number of enemies marching toward them. But he crouched, steadied his elbow on his knee, and fired.

It took several shots to take down one Vex ... but the second Vex went down in three shots ... the next Vex only took two. Drang grew warm in Jayesh's hand, heating through his glove. He paused to reload, blinking at the little pistol. Light flickered around its edges. He opened his mouth to ask Kari about it, then shook his head and kept shooting. One more amazing weapon he'd never be able to afford.

They'd destroyed about a third of the Vex soldiers when the Gate Lord spoke, its voice booming, grating on the ears. The metal soldiers parted ranks. The giant robot crawled out of the construct circle on dozens of legs: fine, spindly things like a spider's. Its arms revolved around its torso, each hand opening and closing.

"How's your super charge?" Jayesh said.

Kari shook her head. "Too soon. I don't have nearly enough strength yet." She gripped her rifle for a moment. "Let's run for it."

She broke out of hiding and bolted, fleeing across the stone floor in a dead run toward a third pillar. Jayesh launched himself into the air and glided, hoping their different trajectories would confuse the Gate Lord.

The monster locked onto Kari. It pounced forward with far too much speed for something so huge, the arms reaching. The other Vex had taken up positions around the circle again, no longer attacking.

"It's here to capture us," Ghost whispered, his fear touching Jayesh with cold. "They want us alive."

One of the huge grabbing claws swung in his direction. Jayesh dropped to the floor. The claws snapped shut above his head. He hit the ground running. He looked up just as Kari shrieked. One of the robot's claws had seized her around the waist, lifting her into the air.

Jayesh dove behind the third pillar and peeked out of hiding. The Gate Lord lifted Kari to its eye level. The huge, glowing red eye studied her. Then another claw swung toward her, the tips shimmering with white Vex code.

Jayesh fired at the claw, but the Gate Lord paid no attention. It grabbed Kari and tore something out of her. She screamed horribly. Had it taken off her arm? Jayesh squinted. No - somehow, it had taken her ghost. Neko was pinched in the claws, symbols swirling around him.

Kari and Neko both screamed incoherently over the radio, Kari flailing and reaching for him. "Jayesh, do something!"

Jayesh looked at his tiny sidearm, still flickering with Light. "Ghost ... I have to use my super charge. Do you think this Drang would respond to more Light?"

"It might," Ghost said. "It's not like we have a lot of options right now."

Jayesh inhaled and drew on his stored Light. He was still tired and sore, but that slid aside, becoming secondary. He pushed through his own doubts, his disillusionment with his own people, and his secret fears that maybe he really hadn't seen the Traveler, that he had dreamed it somehow. The Light was real. He could feel it. In his mind, he was back with the Traveler, feeling the Light around him and inside him, warm, electrical, and alive. Its voice spoke in his mind, along with the Light, saying in recognition and approval, "Guardian Jayesh."

He hadn't made it up, after all. Sudden courage filled him. He had been telling the truth - the Traveler knew his name. No amount of sneering media could change that. The Light surged inside him, though him, empowering him as its chosen Guardian.

"I fight for you, Traveler!" Jayesh cried. Fire burst from him, wreathing him in a cloak of burning light. It billowed from his shoulders like a pair of wings. A glowing sword appeared in his hand.

He shot into the air and hurled himself at the Gate Lord.


	5. Chapter 5: Restitution

The Gate Lord's gaze shifted from Kari to the tiny Guardian hurtling toward it. Then, to everyone's surprise, the monster flinched. The arms coiled inward, shielding the eye from the onslaught of Light.

Jayesh swung his sword. Molten Light exploded from the blade and sliced into the wrist of the hand holding Kari. The hand slumped, the claws loosening. Jayesh cut the claw holding Neko, too. Neko immediately phased back into Kari. Glancing at them only long enough to make sure they were free, Jayesh landed on the Gate Lord's nearest arm and leaped again, heading for that eye it had concealed.

Trailing Light like a comet, Jayesh dropped down among the curled arms and landed on the Gate Lord's polished metal head. The hands reached for him, but he slashed them to pieces with his sword. Then he leaped onto a shoulder, aimed the fire-wreathed Drang into the huge red eye, and fired as fast as he could work the trigger.

The eye cracked, then shattered, the red light dying away. White Vex milk splattered through the broken glass. The Gate Lord screamed.

Jayesh hurled himself off the giant as it fell backward onto its own troops, crushing dozens of Vex beneath its massive frame. The whole room shook, the grinding and crashing of falling metal echoing and re-echoing until it stunned the ear.

Jayesh's fire faded as he floated to the floor. Kari was half-running, looking over her shoulder for him. He landed and nearly stumbled, his Light-given strength giving out. But he pulled himself up and ran with Kari to the triangular exit doorway.

On the other side was a hallway a few meters long leading to a white, flickering Vex gate. The Guardians halted outside it. Jayesh was too spent to even form words, let alone speak them. Kari said instead, "Failsafe! Where does this gate lead?"

"At present, it leads to Io," Failsafe said cheerfully. "Wait one moment while I reroute it to the Exodus Black."

Jayesh fought to keep his legs stiff, but his knees wobbled. He started to fall, but Kari caught him. She looped one of his arms over her shoulders. "Stay with me, Guardian."

He leaned on her, trying to stay upright, barely able to lift his head.

"Why doesn't your ghost heal you?" Kari demanded, an edge of fear in her voice.

"He's not hurt," Ghost replied over the radio. "He's very tired, which I can't heal."

Jayesh wanted to say that he would be fine, if he could rest for a while. There'd been so much running. But he couldn't force the words from his brain to his mouth.

"The gate is rerouted," Failsafe said cheerfully.

Kari helped Jayesh stumble forward, through the gate. They warped in blinding light and dragging pressure, emerging in the valley of the crashed space ship.

"Resetting the gate's original settings," Failsafe said cheerily. Her personality flipped. "You killed a Gate Lord. They'll be so mad at you."

"Great," Kari panted, struggling to hold Jayesh up. "Come on, Jayesh, move your legs."

She half-carried her partner to the tail section of the Exodus Black, where Failsafe's core resided. Once inside, Kari let Jayesh slump to the floor. He lay in the same position she dropped him, already unconscious.

Ghost phased out of him and scanned his Guardian. To Kari's surprise, Neko materialized and did the same.

"Not hurt," Neko said, quietly, studying Jayesh's head through the helmet. "But I'm detecting trauma. Lots of residual trauma and stress."

Ghost joined him, scanning to see for himself. "I can't fix that, Neko. It would require tampering with his brain, which I won't do."

"We'll let him rest," Kari said, sitting beside him and leaning against the wall with her rifle across her lap. "By the Light, you two. You're the ones who did this to him."

The ghosts exchanged a shamed look.

"We made up," Neko offered.

Kari pointed a finger in his eye. "If you hadn't been such a brat, we wouldn't have been caught in that gate trap."

Neko drooped. "I know. I'm sorry."

Ghost said, "I'm at fault, too, and I have no excuse." His voice dropped as he looked tenderly at Jayesh. "He's my Guardian. I should have taken better care of him."

The four of them were quiet for a while. Neko phased from sight, but Ghost remained active, flying back and forth above Jayesh, standing guard.

"Ghost," Kari said very quietly.

He looked at her.

"Why doesn't he have any weapons?"

Ghost looked down at his Guardian, reluctant to answer. "He did. He lost them in the cave-in."

"He had a rifle and a sidearm," Kari said. "Why didn't he bring a heavy weapon?"

Ghost paced back and forth in the air, his movements agitated. Finally he said, "He doesn't have one."

"Doesn't have one," Kari repeated, pondering this. "Did he just graduate Vanguard training, by any chance?"

"Two weeks ago," Ghost said, so quietly she barely heard him.

Kari had formed a picture of Jayesh in her mind - a Guardian with the courage to do what nobody had ever done. He had mentioned passing his classes, but she hadn't realized it was so recently. Her mental picture shifted from a mature Guardian to a younger one. He was green, untried ... and he had destroyed a Gate Lord single-handedly, while already exhausted from a bad resurrection. All to save her.

A lump formed in her throat for no reason. She angrily swallowed, forcing it away. "He can't afford a heavy weapon, can he?"

Ghost mimicked shaking his head.

Kari clenched her fists and gazed at her gauntlets. Eight thousand glimmer each, and it hadn't seemed like much at the time.

"Ghost," she said shakily, "your Guardian is amazing."

"I've always thought so," Ghost said mildly.

* * *

Jayesh awoke on his ship, traveling through hyperspace. He gasped and gripped the armrests of the chair, then his flight harness. "Ghost! Where are we? We're flying!"

"Calm down," Ghost said, floated into view. "I'm driving. We're headed back to Earth."

"But ... how did we get here? The last thing I remember was taking that Vex gate back to Failsafe's ship!"

"Kari brought you back here on her sparrow," Ghost said. "She wrestled you into your seat and everything. You've been out for eighteen hours."

Jayesh groaned and unbuckled his helmet, pulling it off so he could rub his eyes. He was sore all over - his legs ached from the rocks, his arms ached from swinging the sword, and his head ached from Kari's electrical punch.

"Ghost, are all Vanguard missions going to be like this?"

"I don't think so," Ghost replied. "Some are even worse."

Jayesh groaned and leaned back in his seat. As he did, something poked his hip. He reached down and touched the grip of the pistol Drang. He pulled it out and looked at its gleaming gold finish in the light of the instrument panel. "Dammit, I forgot to return this."

"Kari said you could keep it," Ghost said.

Jayesh stared at the pistol and suddenly his eyes burned. "Why?"

"She didn't say," Ghost said, "but I think it's because you saved her life."

Jayesh sat there, gazing at the pistol, feeling small and unworthy. "Well ... she saved mine by digging me out of the rocks. I wasn't trying to prove anything."

Ghost said, "I don't think she is, either."

When Jayesh's eyes grew dangerously moist, Ghost said, "Here, you haven't eaten in over a day. The rations are in this compartment."

Jayesh helped himself to a box of Vanguard rations, which were rather better than most meals he made himself. The wobbly, distraught feeling inside him faded away, and he felt more normal.

"When we drop out of hyperspace," he told Ghost, "I need to radio Kari and thank her."

Ghost nodded. "She wanted to thank you, but you were asleep. Failsafe sent you a reward for helping her, too." He shone his beam at a box on the floor beside the pilot's seat.

Jayesh picked it up and opened it. Inside was a glowing, glass-like energy engram, shaped like a playing dice with eight sides. It was deep blue, and was labeled with the icon for a brand new armored robe. They had the technology at the Tower to convert the matter within the engram to another form - in this case, better gear.

He held the box for a long time, running his fingers over the engram and thinking about the mission. "Ghost, how did I destroy that Gate Lord like that?"

"The Vex can't predict the Light," Ghost replied. "It's the only thing they fear. I suspect it's why they wanted to capture us - for study. The Gate Lord, for all its power, feared you. And for good reason."

The whole fight seemed dream-like now, something impossible that had happened to someone else. Jayesh set the engram back on the floor. "I've used my super charge before, in training. But ... this time, it was different. I felt the Traveler notice me."

Ghost blinked at him, curious. "You did?"

Jayesh nodded. "He recognized me, and he gave me his Light personally. Maybe that's why I was so powerful." He trailed off, thinking of the things people had written about him, laughing at him and scoffing at his story.

Ghost seemed to be thinking the same thing. "All those scholars were wrong, Jay. We really did meet the Traveler. He ... he called me his child." Ghost paused a moment, overcome at the memory. "He treated us with the utmost kindness. Like family. No amount of scientific debunking or philosophical debate can change that. If he acknowledged you as you drew on the Light ... well, let the Traveler be true and every man a liar."

Comforted, Jayesh settled back in his seat. "It makes me feel a lot better. I had started to think ... well, maybe I really was a mistake. But now I see I'm not. I really am supposed to be a Guardian." He hesitated a moment, then added, "Kari believes me. The Traveler healed her, himself."

"Neko told me about that," Ghost replied. "She may be a senior Guardian, but she had never spoken to the Traveler before, either."

"It's a relief, actually," Jayesh said. "Knowing that somebody else has had a similar experience. It'll make the media flogging easier to ignore."

He settled back in his seat. Ghost returned to navigating.

After a while, Jayesh pulled out his personal tablet and flicked through his various accounts. Hyperspace didn't allow for much connection, but they were nearing Earth, and the signal was just strong enough for him to have access to the City networks.

He checked his glimmer account, wondering about a particular bill that hadn't arrived yet. He stared at his balance.

"Uh, Ghost, I have ten thousand glimmer sitting here."

Ghost focused on the instruments and said nothing.

"Ghost!" Jayesh exclaimed. "Is it a mistake? Where did this come from? You didn't rob any banks, did you?"

"It wasn't me," Ghost said.

Jayesh bristled. "Did you tell Kari I don't have any glimmer? I'm not a charity case, Ghost!"

The little robot faced him, twirling his segments in a fierce way. "When you collapsed, she started asking questions about you. Like why you didn't have a heavy weapon."

Jayesh pressed a hand to his forehead. "So you told her about our pathetic finances?"

"Barely," Ghost said defensively. "She guessed more than I said. She transferred the glimmer when we reached our ships on Nessus. All she said was that she expected you to use some of it to take her out for a victory dinner."

Jayesh sat there, sorting through layers of humiliation, trying to decide how to feel about this. That much glimmer would plug a lot of holes in his bills, with enough left over for a new rifle. And he hadn't even received payment for completing this mission, yet.

"All right, I'll keep it," he muttered.

"I think," Ghost said, "and don't quote me, but I think it was a gift for saving Neko."

That made sense. Jayesh relaxed a little, thinking of the tiny ghost in the claws of the giant Gate Lord. Maybe spending a little more time with Kari wouldn't be so bad. He'd never even seen her face.

"Well," he said, "I guess it's a date, then."


End file.
